Colour Change Technology

As regular readers will know Science2U likes to play with new technology and share gadgets and gizmos that are out there and available for everyone to get hold of.
In our Chemistry@work days at Daresbury lab we often share our colour change straws - thermochromic plastic

 our heat sensitive paper - thermochromic ink

and our colour change shower curtain  - hydrochromic technology.

Our latest purchase is actually a toddler playmat but it uses hydrochromic colour change technology to allow young children to draw using only water.
Remember those magic painting books where you only used water and colour appeared - well think like that but re-useable!
Our mat is in rainbow colours so using a water filled pen you can draw or using a brush you can paint  and even use stamps on a water mat. Water reveals an almost magical rainbow of colour which eventually fades away as the mat dries. You can see the appeal to parents - no mess and the only consumable is water!

Our idea is to ask the school groups to sign in with a graffitti style tag which we will display throughout the session but by the time the next group arrives it will have dried out and faded ready to be used again.

Along with our UV colour change loom band bracelets

link to Youtube UV colour change loom bands

we think we have a winning summer fun session for our last Chem@work day of this acadmic year

Hands On Science with Teachers

The last two nights we have been working with teachers sharing exciting science for the primary classroom.

On Tuesday we had a great evening at Runcorn's newest free school Sandymoor where the Head had invited local primary schools to come for a look around and we were there to so a session of experiments. 

It was lovely to see Alan from Daresbury labs sharing what they can offer schools especially the Starlab - very exciting.

We showed off some of our favourite gadgets and gizmos including our smart heart which features in our All About You - healthy humans show. If you've not come across one of these before - it is a giant stethoscope but in the shape of a heart with a speaker so that people can hear your heart beat and then a little bit of magic...it tells you your heart rate. 

No more trying to find your pulse and counting - this does it for you. 

It is actually designed to work on children, they just place it over their heart on top of their clothes and it picks up the sound. Super!

Wednesday evening we were back at Upton Heath in Chester running a cluster science evening. Emma - the science co-ordinator had organised the event and invited lots of teachers from the local area.

The teachers, tired, after a day in school arrived BUT we had fantastic cakes and biscuits from the school's Fair Trade cafe with tea and coffee to pep us all up.

Everyone was pleased when we began to hand out things to play with - no heavy duty note taking in our sessions - it's all Hands ON!

We played with thermo moulding plastic,

colour changing straws

heat sensitive paper

LCD sheets

 and of course no event would be complete if we didn't make bath bombs.

Lots of ideas for science plus an Ideas Bag to take away full of science goodies to try out.

It was lovely to meet all the teachers and I know we will be seeing some of them soon!

Our birthday month has come to an end - I can't quite believe we have been going a whole year. Lots of schools have taken advantage of our birthday discount offer, we are busy with plenty of bookings and - the big thing - we are having a GREAT time.
Next - National Science and Engineering Week which has already started for us and will last until the Easter holidays - it's good to be popular..so take a deep breath...here we go!